Friday, October 26, 2012

The Cubs sent out 45 nonrenewal letters to a select group of season-ticket holders Wednesday, noting that season tickets “are a revocable license granted on a yearly basis at the sole discretion of the team.”

The Cubs feel confident their research in trying to identify potential scalpers is correct, and only professional ticket sellers, many of whom have out of state addresses, were affected, according to one Cubs source, who said: “This is about the guy in California with 40 tickets.”

About 1,000 tickets will be made available to fans on the season-ticket waiting list and possibly for upgrades for current season-ticket holders.

The Cubs won’t be alone in this practice. A baseball source outside of Chicago told ESPN Chicago that other big-market teams are plotting similar plans to oust scalpers from their season-ticket rolls.

Major League Baseball’s deal with StubHub is up for renewal after this season and some teams aren’t happy with the current arrangement, which they feel directs fans to StubHub over their own website.

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Haven't the Cubs been scalping their own tickets for years? I may well be wrong but didn't they start holding back x number of the seats for each game in order to sell them through a ticket agency that is a Cubs' subsidiary? I don't remember the details but I'm almost sure that they were sued over this practice and, when the case was heard in a Chicago court, the Cubs were told this permissable.

No, no, the Cubs are upset that tickets might be scalped for above face value, making them look like fools. If they lose enough games then finally the demand will be low enough that scalpers lose money on many of the seats.